Rocket Donuts (Bellingham) – Out of this World

So, who knew there was a downtown Bellingham? Well, I guess the people that live there I suppose. But as a visiting Canadian, my knowledge of Bellingham was generally limited to Bellis Fair Mall and the pit stop when heading further south down the I-5.
As it turns out, Bellingham is also the home of Rocket Donuts, about a ten minute drive south of Bellis Fair. When we drove down in December, we discovered that they were doing renos so we didn’t get to enjoy the full experience of their sci-fi themed store. They did, however, still have their iconic rocketship outside their shop.

We grabbed half a dozen donuts including a lightly glazed french cruller, a cream-filled long john that had a pillowy texture but could have used more cream filling, a chocolate old fashioned cake donut which was superbly chocolately (just the way it should be), a Nutella-filled cronut that didn’t seem as texturally complex as other cronuts that I’ve had before (but you can’t go wrong with Nutella), a square-shaped, egg nog-filled donut, and an apple fritter. The apple fritter was really good and had a sweet crunch to the outside shell before getting into the soft centre.

We came back here at the end of January and their renos were all complete. We were a bit disappointed that they didn’t have a big selection of donuts this time around and had to settle on a couple of crullers, an apple fritter, chocolate old fashioned, classic pink iced with sprinkles and a maple bacon long john. That maple bacon long john was soooo good!

Unfortunately, many Canucks don’t know more of Bham than Bellis Fair and the Guide Meridian strip. We’ve been Bham “2nd-home” Canucks for almost 20 years, and we still discover new things each time we’re down there (I was just down there last week, in fact). Even faced with diminished purchasing power, Bham is a great local destination with a surprising wealth of arts & entertainment options. But as far as foodie options go, Bham is about as limited as say, Maple Ridge or the Langleys. Especially when it comes to Asian options, and really good ones at that.

Having said that, Rocket Donuts is a gem. They do have a 2nd location in Fairhaven, a small historic hamlet about 10 mins south of Bham downtown that is truly our home-away-from-home. But they bring all the donuts in from the downtown store, however Rocket also owns ACME ice cream which is available in their Fairhaven store.

hmmm….ive been meaning to get myself a passport and head down to Bellingham like i used to many years ago. I only went once to Bellis Fair mall….it bored the pants offa me. I always preferred to lurk and linger around the downtown with it’s historic old buildings, taverns and antique shops. Honestly, i never cared for shopping malls especially heading south of the border. I’m there for the scenery, the characters i meet and a decent bite to eat . The real reason i stopped going was the border hassles, the custom guards giving me a hard time(both sides) and very often trying to trip me up on Anything, no matter if i was fully employed and no crimminal record , ever. Maybe the salt ‘n pepper hair im sporting these days will help me sneak back and forth unmolested….

Tony A – get yourself a Nexus pass (Cdn$50/person, good for 5 years) and save the hassles of border lineups and the 3rd -degree from CBSA/CBP agents.

You want to enjoy historic old buildings, taverns and antique shops, scenery, the characters i meet and a decent bite to eat ……. stay in downtown Bellingham, go down to the waterfront west of downtown (Bellwether On the Bay) and Fairhaven Historic District (link in my post above). As I mentioned, we’ve been doing that for almost 25 years now and are still finding joy and new discoveries.

excellent, thank you! I will look into the Nexus pass tonite. Fairhaven looks pretty cool..i may have breifly drove around there about 20 years ago while checking out neighborhoods. I see Bellingham is doing a grand project with the waterfront…good for them! If i was an American citizen, i probably would find myself living in a small city like Bellingham….but one really never knows till you actually spend a fair amount of time to see if it is the right mixture of people/job opps/ quality of life, taxes and so on. Thanks again! 🙂